


All I Need

by deathwailart



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Family Dynamics, OT3, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-27
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-17 06:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1377106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the end, they fall into a routine and it's not the life Lightning ever imagined for herself but she wouldn't trade it for the world.</p>
<p>Disregards the game ending; AU wherein they're all happily ever after in Pulse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All I Need

"So...Vanille's in charge of hunting?" Lightning asks when she wakes up – last, she's still getting used to what their lives are now – to find Fang fresh from the shower, her hair a wet tangle over one shoulder.  
  
"Yeah, you know that skirt of hers comes from a bear she called way back right?" Fang replies, nudging a cup of tea Lightning's way with a grin. There's a tired mumble of 'no' because there's been too much to do since they succeeded and Fang and Vanille found themselves looking up at a crystal they should have been part of before being hauled into the hugging and then all the struggles of having to help all the people of Cocoon adjust. "Well for all that she was the biggest scaredycat, she knew how to fight. We never had much of a choice here y'know?" Lightning just nods, clumsily moving Fang's damp hair off her shoulder so she can settle without cold, wet strands sticking to her face.  "Anyway, one day she went out and came home dragging this bear behind her. I gave her a hand skinning it and she's worn it ever since."  
  
"All our meals come from what she's caught?"  
  
"Pretty much, she trades with a few of the people we've been training up – she can grab bigger things but that means she doesn't catch some of the smaller stuff. And no one's better at fishing than her."  
  
"I think she's got an unfair advantage there."  
  
Fang just laughs, kissing Lightning's forehead and one day, she's not going to blush but this is still so new now that it's apparently the rest of their lives. Before, when Cocoon was still in the sky, when they'd first arrived on Gran Pulse and she'd been approached by them separately and then together. It had been friends with benefits then, she supposes, three people in a desperate situation coming together and once they'd left Pulse it had been non-stop action. Until now. Until reuniting with Serah and awkwardly helping to plan a wedding that had been more for everyone else to show that there was still a life to be found here, a new start for all of them. Until she'd pulled away because that was what she was supposed to do, they had each other and their home and she had a job but they'd cornered her, they'd made her talk it out and now she's got a family. True, that family has Snow in it too but maybe it's not so bad.  
  
Not that she'll ever tell him that.  
  
Eventually Fang pulls away to go make breakfast, something Lightning's still learning. She didn't have much need to know how to cook back on Cocoon and even when they were l'Cie on the run it was snagging whatever they could just to keep going. Fang is apparently the cook of the household and she might make it look like the aftermath of a tornado but her food is always delicious. She bangs around with pots and pans, somehow manages to use every utensil they have and there's always a mess to clear up, splashes of sauces, blobs of oil, bits of peel and stray leaves from the herbs they grow outside (in a small herb garden they've protected with magic because apparently Fang really cares about having a properly seasoned meal) that Lightning's found herself clearing up. She's still learning and she's got a soldier's discipline still. So she sweeps and washes the mountain of dishes, grumbling about if Fang really needed to use every single bowl as well as every knife because Fang grew up in a community that shared and so she has no idea how to cook for just three people. Half the time their dinners end up as dinner parties or with Vanille dragging Lightning along with her to hand out food to the people from Cocoon still finding their feet. She never thought her life would be this way. She saw Serah getting a degree and a good education, smiling and happy and carefree – truth be told she always saw Snow around, again she's not telling him that – and herself rising through the ranks. Never quite at the top but comfortable where she was. Just her.  
  
Now here she is, rolling her eyes because she knows Fang's left a towel languishing on the floor as if it's going to magically wash and dry itself with Fang off making her porridge that she'll throw fresh berries in, giving Lightning just enough time to eat, shower, dress and head off to her own 'job' here. Not that any of them really have jobs. They've all just slotted into place and Lightning ended up being the one to teach people self-defence because Pulse is still wild and people need to know how to look out for themselves. They've salvaged what they can and fashioned whatever struck their fancy and they're no army but they've weathered attacks by some of the shambling Cie'th and she enjoys it. She likes seeing the proud smiles on their faces at the end of the day when they've managed to succeed in the drills she puts them through, the way they say thanks and really mean it. Because she used to look out for people before but she was always just a background figure and there was never much action. She understands Amodar better now and she guesses that she has the same swell of pride when she corrects a grip that Serah has when she's helping the little ones learn their letters.  
  
She knows that tonight she'll come home after a day of drills and checking in on her sister, Snow and Hope, on Sazh and Dajh, that she'll find Vanille atop her eidolon leading the hunting party home and catching her ankle when she tries to leap down smoothly. That she'll end up helping to skin and gut wild animals and find that it doesn't turn her stomach as much as it used to and that Fang will insist she observes her making dinner with instructions to chop this or peel that or hand her something as they both try to stop Vanille from snagging stray bites whenever she can. They'll argue about the dishes and Lightning will do them and won't let Vanille help because she's bound to drop something and usually that means breaking something. And then all of them pile into the shower and Fang's hands will work out all the knots of tension she finds as Vanille casts healing magic. And then it's collapsing into bed, warm and damp and naked, Lightning no longer shy or unsure, going after what she wants as they reduce one another to helpless sighs and squirming.  
  
This is never how she thought her life would turn out but if this is a thanks for saving the world then she'll swallow her pride and say thanks.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: What is the division of power like in the relationship?  
> Title from Girlfriend by Icona Pop and you should listen to that when reading this.


End file.
